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American V: A Hundred Highways
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0602498626962
Label: Lost Highway
Manufacturer: Lost Highway
MPN: 000276902
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Lost Highway
Release Date: July 04, 2006
Studio: Lost Highway
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Editorial Review:
The ethical questions surrounding this final album in the American Recordings series are as unavoidable as they are, ultimately, peripheral. While the vocal tracks were recorded in the months just prior to Johnny Cash's passing in September 2003, the arrangements weren't undertaken until two years later. And though producer Rick Rubin had become a trusted friend, the Man in Black wasn't around to approve or disapprove, let alone guide, the final sessions. However, if the pure power of these recordings doesn't quiet the skeptics, nothing will. With Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench and slide guitar session pro Smokey Hormel on board (all three of whom appear on earlier Cash albums), along with guitarists Matt Sweeney and Johnny Polansky, the sound is stately and acoustic, but rarely staid, even as the dynamics of earlier recordings in the series are absent. Instead, the songs have a measured, elegiac intensity, the sound of musicians choosing their notes carefully and making just the right choices. The songs Cash sings are, unsurprisingly, confessional and reflective: his mortality and his mistakes, his maker and his salvation, and the loss of his wife June and the end of his career may have weighed on his mind, but in these songs he both embodies and transcends his personal history. On "God's Gonna Cut You Down," as the musicians clap and stomp behind him, his voice cuts through the air like that same avenging hand. On the new original "Like the 309"--the last song Cash ever wrote--he cops to being short of breath, and that voice becomes a metaphor for what each of us will one day face. On Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Read My Mind," Rubin flirts with overwhelming the damp bittersweetness of Cash's phrasing in tasteful atmospherics, but the voice is implacable, hitting and finding notes one never expected he'd have the will to find. Likewise, it's hard to believe this is his first recording of Ian Tyson's "Four Strong Winds"; the elemental narrative seems to have been written for him. Two songs, however, Cash has recorded before: the born-again hymn "I Came to Believe" and the final spiritual, "I'm Free from the Chain Gang Now." The latter especially is a definitive testament, as is his version of Bruce Springsteen's "Further On (Up the Road)." "One sunny morning we'll rise, I know / And I'll meet you further on up the road," he sings. If only, John, if only. --Roy Kasten
More Cash
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Goodbye, Johnny Cash
This posthumous recording marks the end of Johnny Cash's long and successful career. On some tracks, such as "Help Me" and the Gordon Lightfoot cover "If You Could Read My Mind," his voice is a fragile whisper, while on others, such as "God's Gonna Cut You Down," he summons up some of his old power. Every track, however, is an intimate, eloquent testimony from a man facing the end of his days with a mixture of joy, melancholy, acceptance, and anticipation of a reunion with his departed wife. When ... Read More
Rating: - Songs of my heart . . . .
I'm not going to pretend to be musically astute and theoretically compare how this album may have sounded if the Great JRC himself had been around to approve/disapprove the use of cellos in "Help Me."
I'm going to tell you that when I thought "The Man Comes Around" would always be my favorite Cash album, it's only because this one hadn't been made yet. Each and every cut touches my heart . . . comforts me, delights me, gives me courage. (Yeah, even "Like the 309")
So, I'm ... Read More
Rating: - Johnny Cash
CD arrived in excellent condition. If you buy this, be prepared to hear a Johnny Cash we never knew. I could feel the heartache of deceased spouse.
Rating: - Perfection from the foreboding "Man In Black"
I,m trying to come up with some eloquent,and expressive words to describe my personal feelings,after listening to this "masterpiece", but I simply can't come up with the words. Only to say that the Legend saved the best for last.
Rating: - So emotionally powerful it's makes you feel like he's standing right next to you.
I have been a casual Johnny Cash fan for about 5 years. So I can assure you as a casual fan that this CD had to earn all five stars out of me. I wish I could have given it 10. What struck me the most was the passion in Johnny's frail, course, yet emotionally pleasing voice. You feel like your right there in the room with him. After listening to this CD you feel like your saying goodbye to an old friend. The CD feels like a right of passage for Johnny. Most of the songs are covers, but he makes them his ... Read More
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